The ACC, Along with the Big Twelve, Have Submitted Paperwork to Deregulate Conference Championship Games

Power conferences have wanted more autonomy, and it appears two of them have made another move in that direction.

From Dennis Dodd at CBSSports.com:

The ACC has submitted NCAA legislation that would “deregulate” football conference championship games sources told CBSSports.com.

The intent is to allow leagues their preference in how to determine their conference champion. It would theoretically eliminate the need -- per NCAA rules -- to split into divisions with the division winners meeting in a conference championship game.

That would benefit the ACC and other conferences which have expanded to the requisite minimum of 12 teams (and two divisions) to stage a championship game. Theoretically, with passage of the legislation, any of those conferences could play in one division and still stage a championship game.

I'm all for a move that would put more power into the hands of power conferences. Who should decide how conference champions are decided but the conferences? I also think eliminating divisions would be a way to make sure top teams play each other every year.

Comments

I also think eliminating divisions would be a way to make sure top teams play each other every year.

That seems like the most obvious reason a conference such as the ACC would want to go this route... Given that some divisions seem to be really top-heavy one year while the other division is pretty weak (think about all the discussion in the B1G expansion/alignment process about "competitive parity" versus geography in delineating the divisions), this seems like a move to make that less of an issue.

If the pen is truly mightier than the sword, I may be the most dangerous man I know...

This is a great thing. Let the conference ADs (or whoever) decide the two best teams. It would almost ensure that what we have is a 10-team playoff. The 4 most dominant winners would naturally line up for the playoff. The playoff committee would just need to seed and decide which of the 5 gets left out.

I agree with Phillip this is a scam to try to get ND into the ACC championship game. If us and UM both went undefeated and we beat them by 1 point like this year in a super close game would it be fair for us to have to play them again the next week if all other members had 2 conference losses. I do not like the idea at all and if a few teams tied with one conference loss and it came down to voting I could see a team like Bama benefiting greatly from a rule like this.

I speak the truth but I guess that's a foreign language to yall.~~Lil Wayne

The problem I see with decoupling a conference championship game from divisions is that under the division system, your immediate competition comes teams playing a very similar schedule. In the NFL for instance,divisional rivals have 14 of their 16 games in common every year. The Buckeyes last season got to the B1G championship game by beating five teams that all played each other. I think removing divisions as a factor, or eliminating them entirely, will allow certain teams known for trying to massage their schedule (COUGHalabamaCOUGH) to further avoid unfavorable matchups.